How Can You Stay Sane in Stressful Times!

A smile acts upon difficulties as the sun upon clouds – it disperses them. Keep smiling.

Story I loved hearing –

I was listening to a podcast in which Jack Kornfield, a trained Buddhist monk talks about remaining calm in crisis as the best approach. Jack has conducted online sessions for people in China and other countries that are severely affected by the Corona virus. He Talks about how when in ancient times when the pirate ships were caught is storms, everyone on the ship was saved if even one of them remained calm. This one person would show everyone the way forward and all would survive even the mightiest of storms. Today, in this time of crisis, I want to invite you to be that one person. How could you be that one person, you may be thinking. Read further..

Best advise I heard on staying sane during stressful times –

According to Jack Kornfield, here are the steps to follow:

1 Acknowledge your anxieties – Write down your worst fears and worries on chits of paper and put them all in a bowl. Place them at your place of worship in the house. For Lord to take care and hold it for you.

2. Change the lens through which you’re seeing the happenings around you. Start believing that this is not happening to us, but for us. – Is there something to learn from this? Can this downtime be used for deepening compassion, strengthening connection and improving ourselves?

Turn it around and say the universe has provided you with a retreat which would otherwise not be possible.

Hasn’t this situation already taught us to look beyond the boundaries of geography and religion? We’re all, the entire humanity in it standing together like never before, in this fight against the unknown.

3. Get real: Denial is wrong and so is getting lost in the future. It’s time to get into action. We have got work to do, a lot of it. Stay home, clean the house, wash the dishes, doors and handles too. Clearly, there is not any time to waste, no time for gossip and no time for a constant inflow of breaking news.

A motivation tip I loved the most-

This too is by Jack Kornfield, “Remember, we have generations of ancestors behind us, who are looking at us today and saying -we too survived some extremely tough times, you will too. You can do it. Keep the faith.”

A creative way of creating the Daily Top 3 things to do –

Jonathan Fields, the author of The Good Life Project says that to live a good life no matter what the circumstances, you need to constantly work on filling three life buckets. These three buckets are those of Connection, Contribution and Vitality.

Connection – Attend online meetings, rekindle relations with the family, express gratitude to the real hero’s- the doctors at the frontline.

Contribution – Like I said before, stay home, clean the house, wash the dishes, and doors and handles too.

Vitality – Learn and grow. Physically, Spiritually and mentally. Various things you can do for that. For example, even in this downtime, my calendar is busier than ever.

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